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Zambarau Concord Mbili/History
Though it is only just 47 years old, the Zambarau Concord Mbili has developed quickly since the colonisation of Ahdm'pya, spreading out to 6 other solar systems, with 25 others in its exploration records. Today growth and development continues, albeit at a reduced rate in the form of a finely controlled steady state economy. Seedship The Zambarau Concord Mbili was established by a seedship launched by the original Zambarau Concord 839 years ago under the cover of a great war. This seedship took the form of a circular mesh of wire about 1 kilometre in diameter, with the spaces in the mesh being approximately 30.3 centimetres across; at each of the 8,552,986 intersections of the mesh was a tiny microprobe massing just 468 nanograms; added to the 16 gram mass of the mesh, this gave the seedship a total mass of 20 grams. Each microprobe consisted of a rudimentary sensor (primarily radiation and electromagnetic sensors, though several microprobes also had chemical sensors), a tiny molecular computer and an assortment of nanoassemblers; the microprobes were networked together into a computing system that held a large compressed database of Zambarau knowledge, especially information useful to the mission, as well as, most importantly, an artificially intelligent expert system designed to co-ordinate the seedship. The seedship, which was, and still is, nameless, was launched from planetary orbit by means of a microwave laser (the wavelength of the microwaves was larger than the spacing of the mesh of the seedship, so the microwaves simply reflected off the seedship as if it were solid, in the process imparting momentum). The seedship accelerated at 1150 metres per second per second for 21.74 hours, reaching a velocity of 90,000 kilometres per second, or 0.3 times lightspeed. Though the information was not contained on the seedship's records, it is theorised that several seedships were launched for insurance. If this is so, the seedship that founded the Zambarau Concord Mbili is the only one that survived. After launch, the seedship coasted through interstellar space for 790 years. The seedship's computer network ran at a very low level to conserve power sourced from the slight electric charge built up in the mesh due to interactions with charged particles as the seedship passed through space. The Zambarau had not specified any particular destination, just instructions for colonisation, but after 790 years of coasting through interstellar space at 90,000 kilometres per second, 7,175,955 microprobes (83.9% of them) had failed; though this was not particularly a problem, because the microprobes were designed to provide memory and processing power to back up the computing network over 12 times over. However, the expert system calculated that the risk to the mission due to damage to the seedship was becoming untenable, and switched to full operational capacity. The increased power consumption was fulfilled by expanding the mesh to a larger area and using the microprobes to regulate the flow of current across the intersections of the mesh to turn the seedship into a giant electrical circuit; interaction of the resultant electromagnetic field with charged particles in interstellar space increased the current, at the expense of causing the seedship to decelerate at a negligible rate. The expert system then went about locating a suitable location for colonisation. Slow-running simulations that had been taking place in the computer network throughout the journey showed that a rocky planet was the most promising place to start a new civilisation with the resources available, as opposed to a gas giant or an asteroid. The expert system therefore used the combined resolution of the sensors on the microprobes of the seedship to locate a suitable planet to the best of its ability; it quickly found a suitable candidate orbiting a class-F main sequence star, though it could not determine the exact environment of the planet due to the long distances involved and the seedship's limited sensory abilities. Once at a suitable distance, the mesh of the seedship was expanded further into an immense ring 907.5 kilometres across, which covered a large enough cross section of interstellar space to cause significant deceleration due to electromagnetic interaction with charged particles in interstellar space, all the while increasing current running through the mesh, which, due to the mesh's superconducting properties, would continue to flow until needed. The seedship decelerated at its set rate of 1150 metres per second per second. The microprobes were set to redirect current travelling through the mesh in such a way that the seedship would decelerate asymmetrically, allowing the expert system to maneuver the seedship into the target system. Partway through the deceleration phase, the mesh that made up the ring broke, causing the seedship to unravel into a long piece of wire (microprobes still attached); this caused deceleration to virtually cease. Acting quickly, the expert system managed to save a portion of the accumulated current from the loop into remaining sections of the mesh, before devising the ingenious solution of configuring the long wire created by the breakage to interact with the galactic magnetic field, effectively using the motor effect about the galactic core to continue deceleration (albeit at a reduced rate); this put an unexpected load on some of the microprobes used to redirect the current, causing another 28,412 microprobes to burn out successively. Those microprobes that had failed were either salvaged by the on board nanoassemblers or jettisoned to reduce the mass of the seedship to compensate for the slower deceleration. The deceleration phase ended with entry into an elliptical solar orbit within the target system, which gradually settled into a stable circular orbit. By using similar techniques to in the deceleration phase of the mission, the expert systems maneuvered the seedship inwards to match orbit with the target planet by interacting with the solar wind. Colonisation As the seedship was approaching the target system, the expert system noticed something concerning. As it came closer, it could take more accurate readings of the target planet, and realised that the target planet was an ocean planet, covered in a layer of water hundreds of kilometres deep beneath a thick, highly oxygenated atmosphere. As soon as the expert system confirmed this, it ran colonisation simulations for the rest of the journey to the target planet; the seedship had already lost too much velocity to abort the deceleration and travel to another solar system, and colonisation of the ocean planet still proved to be the most effective course of action, so further simulations reviewed plans for colonising the target planet using the more accurate sensory data. By the time the target planet was reached, 1,297,749 microprobes remained operational (coming close to the critical value of 712,749 remaining microprobes), as the failure rate of the microprobes had increased as the seedship had passed through the dense heliopause into the system. The microprobes were then jettisoned and split between different tasks; the remains of the mesh remained connected to the microprobes, giving each one a 30.3 centimetre-long tether which allowed for propulsion via the lorentz effect (power was provided by both the sensors and the nanoassemblers, which could both generate small amounts of energy via the photoelectric effect). Most remained in orbit with the target planet to act as a command centre for colonisation, many were sent out to explore the solar system and some entered the atmosphere of the target planet. The microprobes that entered the target planet used the lorentz effect to de-orbit, then simply dropped down into the planetary ocean, using their extremely low mass to their advantage. The microprobes began to analyse the composition of the oceans in more detail, but their nanoassemblers were unable to create the seeds of Zambarau life, as the carbon-based organic molecules that the expert system had devised were too unstable in the environment of the target planet and the volatile water-oxygen environment soon caused the nanoassemblers to decompose; the microprobes lasted longer but they too eventually failed due to corrosion. Though this was a setback, it provided useful information for the expert system; the microprobes had detected native life in the oceans in the form of primitive prokaryotes (bacteria), the internal structure of which was analysed in detail. The expert system also devised a much more stable organic chemistry, based on chains of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms, to which carbon atoms are attached; many of the hydrogen atoms in these hybrid organic molecules were also replaced by fluorine atoms to further increase stability. In simulations, combining this synthetic biochemistry with cellular machinery based on the native prokaryotes proved to be a near-certain success. Meanwhile, many of the microprobes sent out into the solar system had latched onto nearby pre-selected asteroids and replicated at an exponential rate, doubling in number every 16.6 minutes. Soon many asteroids surrounding the target planet had been converted into giant computers in the shape of recursive dodecahedrons, though encased in shielding. The expert system transferred itself into these, as they were much more secure than the original command centre, which was dissolved, the microprobes being de-orbited into the target planet. The newly de-orbited microprobes in the oceans of the target planet constructed the Zambarau stem cells based in the expert system's newly devised biochemistry. These stem cells, instead of a conventional nucleus, had tiny nanocomputers to control them, causing them to reproduce cancerously rapidly, before giving way to more controlled growth, the stem cells differentiating into various different forms of cell and growing into the first Zambarau. These Zambarau were not like the original Zambarau (though they were still purple sapient plants), but had a modified physiology designed by the expert system to better suit life on a water planet. Soon the target planet was criss-crossed with giant purple floating plants, connected together like a giant nervous system; synthetic consciousnesses (created by the expert system) were uploaded into the Zambarau via the tiny computers within the cells of their nervous systems. These consciousnesses were fully mature and aware of their situation and history, possessing all of the knowledge collected by the expert system during the mission; they named the target planet Ahdm'pya. Finally, the computers built by the nanoassemblers in orbit were de-orbited into Ahdm'pya, protected through re-entry by their shielding, which was deconstructed once they splashed down into the ocean, sinking to a set depth of several hundred metres. The recursive dodecahedral shape of the computers provided a huge surface area for them to shed waste heat into the oceans, allowing them to operate at full capacity; the nanoassemblers used to construct them mostly remained in orbit for use by the Zambarau. Reaching the end of its command sequence, the veteran expert system conducted a mission review, performed a final system scan, then, at 792 years Mission Elapsed Time, quietly decompiled. First ExpansionCategory:Articles by User:Mr.RobboCategory:HistoryCategory:Zambarau Concord Mbili After colonisation, it was now the task of the Zambarau to secure the future of the Zambarau Concord Mbili. The computers built during colonisation, powered by nuclear fusion of hydrogen extracted from the oceans, provided ample processing for an advanced civilization; the next thing that was needed was ample energy. The Zambarau sent most of the nanoassemblers left in orbit toward a planet, identified during colonisation, orbiting close to the sun; most of the rest were sent out to construct more computers to send down to Ahdm'pya, while others were sent out to further explore the solar system. The nanoassemblers sent toward the dwarf planet began mining and construction operations, building giant solar collectors and electromagnetic accelerators to fire materials into a low solar orbit, where they began to be manufactured into solar collectors to provide for future energy needs. Meanwhile, many asteroids in the same solar orbit as Ahdm'pya were converted into computers and de-orbited; soon there were millions of recursive dodecahedral computers in the oceans of Ahdm'pya, which began to significantly increase the planet's ambient temperature. The Zambarau had already been concerned about the stability of the planetary environment, which they had concluded fluctuated even before colonisation; they were also having trouble due to limited large-scale support infrastructure and lack of fertility, both in the oceans and in the computers' information networks. It was clear that a thriving planetary ecosystem was needed for long-term colonisation to take place successfully. The Zambarau took up the challenge with gusto, designing thousands of speculative ecosystems which were simulated in their computers; the most successful solutions were merged and run using evolutionary alogrithms to close any gaps in the ecosystem. Much more consideration was taken over a sapient species to use in the ecosystem, as this species would form the basis of the support system for the computing infrastructure, as well as a significant source of creative output through the production of unique cultures; the result was the Samakiwadago. The new ecosystem was created in much the same way as how the Zambarau were created during colonisation, though the artificial nuclei in the cells were replaced by a biological equivalent to increase reliability over geological periods of time. Synthetic consciousnesses were transferred into the Samakiwadago in the same way that they were transferred into the Zambarau during colonisation, and various levels of instinct were encoded into subsapient plant and animal brains directly from simulations. After a short time of tweaking from the Zambarau, a stable ecosystem was established supporting a thriving civilization of billions of Samakiwadago. At first the Samakiwadago acted unexpectedly sluggish and lazy, but some intense memetic engineering on the part of the Zambarau soon saw the new race more motivated; luckily the Zambarau acted early, when the Samakiwadago were still an inexperienced and impressionable society. Outside of the centralised control of the Zambarau, the Samakiwadago spread quickly in a very short time, colonising the solar system, forming combines and starting many projects of their own. Just a few years after the creation of the Samakiwadago, the system experienced a boom in growth and development. Billions began to colonise and geoengineer planets, building space habitats from asteroids; there was plenty of surplus energy from the growing array of solar collectors close to the sun to power megascale construction and fast-paced geoengineering projects (the Samakiwadago were well under way with bombarding a rocky planet orbiting close to Ahdm'pya with ice asteroids to heat it up and give it a global ocean to swim in). The various computers around the system (though mainly in the oceans of Ahdm'pya) were flooded with simulations and increasingly detailed virtual realities (it is around this time that the virtual population of the Zambarau Concord Mbili first surpassed its physical population), as well as increasingly powerful artificial intelligences (AI). AI first came to the fore in the Zambarau Concord Mbili during the Saphar Dispute, in which the Transmutation Combine clashed with the growing population of the gas giant Saphar over rights to mine the planet for its light elements. Though the colonists did not fully own the planet, and the operations of the Transmutation Combine were not illicit, there was considerable friction between the two groups, to the point at which mining operations began to be the target of minor cyberattacks. However, the dispute was ended by a technology introduced by an AI calling itself Msuluhishi. Msuluhishi traded plans to the Transmutation Combine to extract matter directly from the sun in potentially huge quantities (this was ideal, as the mining operations would be right next to their power source) in order to give the colonists near-full reign over Saphar. After the Saphar Dispute, the Zambarau became very interested in AI (likely afraid that they would be surmounted) and worked to increase their own intelligence through computer uplinks, or even by completely downloading their consciousnesses into high-speed computer systems (becoming ZI; Zambarau Intelligence). The resulting competition between the Zambarau and the AI caused a major boom in computer manufacture. As the innermost planet of the system was slowly deconstructed and swarm of solar collectors above the sun grew, it was only a matter of time before energy became abundant enough for the Zambarau Concord Mbili to launch its first starships. This marked the start of the Second Expansion. Second Expansion It was not the increasingly powerful AI or ZI that spearheaded the first interstellar mission, but regular sapient beings. There is a simple reason for this; the huge information content of high-powered AI and ZI in relation to their processing power means that, even with the best bandwidth available, there is a severe bottleneck when it comes to copying or transferring AI and ZI consciousnesses; this means that they are effectively fixed in a single computing network. Despite this, there was still a resident low-level ZI to co-ordinate the first starship. The first starship was a solar sail with a diameter of 1000 kilometres and massing 72,575 tonnes; the starship was launched using an 43 petawatt laser focused by a 1000 kilometre diameter fresnel-zone-plate lens toward a system judged to be ideal for development 3.7 light-years away. Five more of these starships were also launched, each toward different systems 4.0, 5.3, 9.1, 10.8 and 11.6 light years away (though each launch took 1.6 years, more launch stations were built throughout the project, so all starships were launched within 2 years), which were also judged to be ideal for development; smaller probes were later sent to 25 other systems for closer examination. The whole project was organised by the influential Deep Space Combine, which was stretched to the very edge of (and, if you look into it, slightly beyond) its resource cap to complete the massive undertaking. Much of the mass of these starships was in the form of advanced nanoassemblers and high power-density fusion reactors. The starships coasted at 150,000 kilometres per second, or 0.5 times lightspeed. As they approached their destinations at the scheduled time, they split into a smaller solar sail 320 kilometres across and a ring-shaped solar sail 1000 kilometres across but with a 320 kilometre-wide hole. Laser light beamed from the departure system reflects off the ring-sail to be focused on the smaller sail, causing it to decelerate into the target system (meanwhile, the momentum imparted on the ring-sail through the reflection of the laser light would cause it to accelerate past the solar system, eventually disintegrating). As soon as they entered their target systems, the nanoassemblers aboard starships went about constructing temporary asteroid habitats and solar collectors close to the sun, with the objective of building another laser station to allow solar sails to be sent between systems in succession. This system eventually evolved into the Interstellar Grid; a laser network used to transfer huge quantities of power between systems. As the gradually growing interstellar colonies of the Zambarau Concord Mbili became more prevalent, the AI and ZI became more interested, and began working to accelerate the growth of development in these systems by means of significant energy, data and resource stimulus, the aim being to try to spread their influence to out compete one another. AI and ZI even went as far as using memetic engineering (or, in one case, a cyberattack on one of the starships) to gain considerable influence over some systems. The Second Expansion was the time of highest instability in the Zambarau Concord Mbili, due to the long communication times between interstellar colonies. There were near-countless attempts at break-offs or bids for independence, some of which were allowed to continue for years on end before being noticed (due to communication delays); these ranged from the scale of small virtual environments to a whole solar system, but all were eventually recovered. The Noosphere was created to deal with the above problems. The Noosphere was an expansion of the old economic networks that had already existed for decades and were based on subsapient expert systems, and were therefore considered reliable and impartial. The Noosphere co-ordinated the elaborate economic networks, defense networks and memetic engineering systems that were now required to properly administrate the Zambarau Concord Mbili. Late Explosion The Late Explosion is an event that began only a few years ago. Though long communication distances had reduced growth during the Second Expansion, the events of the Second Expansion had set up the prerequisites for the fastest burst of growth the Zambarau Concord Mbili had seen. Namely, the presence of significant infrastructure in all systems, the creation of the Interstellar Grid making large quantities of energy abundant even in regions light years from power sources and the completion of the Dyson swarm surrounding the sun of Ahdm'pya. The construction of solar collectors surrounding the sun of Ahdm'pya had been growing exponentially ever since deconstruction of one of the inner planets began shortly after colonisation; as such, five short years at the start of the Late Explosion would see energy collection in the system increase from 6.25% of solar output to virtually 100% of solar output. The sudden burst of energy was quickly exploited, much of it being beamed through the Interstellar Grid to accelerate Dyson swarm construction in other systems, as well as hurry a number of geoengineering projects, including a project started by the Samakiwadago way back in the First Expansion. It was at this time that the Affiliated Habitats rose through the deconstruction of two brown dwarf stars in interstellar space into swarms of deep space habitats. Significant contributions from the Zambarau Concord Mbili in this direction, as well as some slight memetic engineering, saw the Affiliated Habitats assimilated surprisingly quickly. Meanwhile, Ahdm'pya embarked on its most ambitious project yet. The old Zambarau Concord had been working on the construction of a giant circumstellar ring habitat, capable of housing many trillions of non-virtual sapients, during the launch of the seedship; the abundance of resources during the Late Explosion finally resulted in a sister project getting enough support in honour of the old Zambarau Concord (which still has not been contacted to this day). Such a project required the deconstruction of several moons and asteroids procured by the Ring Combine. Huge amounts of matter were mined from the sun and converted directly into energy to power the project by clusters of microscopic black holes; the energy produced by the black hole clusters outshone the sun itself at one point, and careful shielding was required to prevent environmental problems on planets in the system. The sun actually shifted to being a G-type main sequence star due to the large amounts of mass extracted, as even more matter was extracted to be processed into expensive (though extremely strong) nuclear matter to support the Legacy Ring. Not to mention the energy required for extensive landscaping and the establishment of a stable atmosphere and ecosystems on the huge habitat (the Legacy Ring is actually open-topped, the atmosphere kept in by multi-kilometre tall walls along each edge). Today, construction of the greatest project ever devised by the Zambarau has only just been completed, and that is where I am writing from now. ''- Msimuliaji.''